Now into the last leg of the season, I am still optimistic that we will not finish at the foot of the table. In the match last night for Sonning there was James, Cris and Stephen. For SC&P, Gerry, Oliver and Graeme. Mike Casserley is unwell and we send him our best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

Drawing up the playing order, Gerry noticed that James was playing number 3, so promptly placed Oliver in that position as well.  Oliver having beaten James earlier in the season was going to be given the chance to repeat that feat.

First off was Cris against Graeme. This was a long battle. Cris took the first 11-8 but lost the second and third games 10-12 and14-16. Cris levelled in the fourth by winning
11-3.  In the fifth, Cris was 7-10 down and eventually lost 9-11. Given Cris had taken 55 points to 50 points for Graeme, it was particularly frustrating to go one set down.

The second set brought Stephen and Gerry together. Gerry who has done very respectably in Division 3 had too much guile and experience for Stephen and won in straight games, 11-4, 11-6 and 11-6.

So we come to set 3 and James and Oliver. Cris gave some advice to James and he won a close first game 11-9. As James settled further, he took the set in three games winning the next two games 11-6, 11-3. The suggestion by some donkey that he scrapped home, was way off the mark! ??

Stephen was up against Graeme in set 4. The first was close, as Stephen just lost 11-13. However, the form that Stephen showed last week at Tidmarsh was not quite there, as he lost in straight games.

Cris returned to the table and faced Oliver. Having played well against Graeme, Cris lost his way against Oliver with whom he had played a good number of five game sets over the years. This set was over quickly as Oliver prevailed in three games.

The final second round of singles brought James and Gerry to the table. A close first game saw James recover from 9-6 down to win 12-10. James then took games two and three 11-5 and 11-6So 4-2 down in sets.

The doubles saw Cris and James take on Oliver and Graeme. It seemed that the SC&P pairing was agreed on the toss of a coin!  In the first game, SSC found themselves 5-0 down. After having a quick chat SSC knew we could claw back that lead and we promptly did so to edge the first game11-9. The second and third games were more routine as SSC won them 11-8 and 11-4.  By this time Brett had appeared and was complimented on his umpiring.

The last round of singles saw Oliver beat Stephen in three games and then James took on Graeme. James won the first comfortably 11-2. Graeme levelled up in the second before James in a tight third game regained the lead recovering from 6-2 down to win 11-8. In game four, again James was down 9-6 but managed to steady the boat as he won the next five points. In the final set Cris took on Gerry. Gerry just took the first two games 11-9. Cris struck back to win the third. Oliver then spoke to Gerry to give some guidance on how to take game four. He promptly won the fourth 11-2.

So yet another close match in which SSC won 4 points. Without checking that is probably seven matches this season we have lost 6-4.

Thanks to Brett for his support last night and umpiring 3 of the sets!

Next week we face Tilehurst Methodists. We have a match in hand and trust that we can gain some more ground on them. They were playing leaders OLOP C on Monday and they also have SC&P D to play. So for this reason I still believe not all is lost.

by Cris Reynolds